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A collection of headlines from the past week:

Rays pitchers break AL record for strikeouts9/21

Pirates pitching staff sets club strikeouts record9/25

20 Strikeouts! Zack Greinke, Angels tie MLB records vs. Mariners9/26

A's hitters set AL strikeout record9/26

Doug Fister sets AL record with nine straight strikeouts9/27

Don't know about you, but I'm sensing some sort of pattern here.

Not only is the major-league average strikeout rate of 7.6 per nine innings this season the highest ever, but the increase of 0.5 K/9 since last season, should it hold up over the final week, would be the largest single-season uptick since 1986.

Note: Sam Miller and I discussed the significance of the strikeout surge on today's episode of Effectively Wild. To avoid having to hear us talk about other topics, skip straight to the strikeout stuff at the 9:30 mark. 

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flyingdutchman
9/28
This headline, recently featured on Deadspin, deserves inclusion:

http://deadspin.com/5947034
frankopy
9/28
the disdain for contact first, power next, has caught up...shutouts in the swing and miss era are soooo easy to come by that throwers are often confused with pitchers...the rally -- once a beautiful thing -- is now a two or three singleton homer thing...no pressure on a thrower who can still wind up and find a willing swing-and-misser
mbodell
10/02
It's the PEDs!! The pitchers must be on PEDs!!

Isn't that how we are supposed to react when cherished records are approached or broken? Or is that only for when it is people the media don't like hitting too many HR?